Cook County will not detain some illegal immigrants sought by feds

September 07, 2011|By Antonio Olivo | Tribune reporter

Casting the contentious debate over illegal immigration as a fiscal issue, the Cook County Board of Commissioners passed an ordinance that would allow illegal immigrants in jail on misdemeanor charges to go free despite federal requests to have them detained for possible deportation.

The practice of abiding by federal immigration "detainer" requests costs the county roughly $15 million per year, or $143 per person per day, county officials said.

The ordinance was based on a recent federal ruling in Indiana that determined Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers are voluntary requests, not mandatory. It applies to anyone arrested on misdemeanor charges who normally would be released from custody, whether because charges are dropped, a person is found not guilty or because bail has been met.

"It's important to recognize that this is about improving public safety, it's about serving our taxpayers better and it's about keeping families together," said county board president Toni Preckwinkle, who did not vote on the ordinance that passed 10 to 5, but helped push it behind the scenes.

During a long debate, some commissioners warned the ordinance would potentially allow hardened criminals to go free.

"This is clearly, without exacerbating the situation, our Willie Horton moment here in Cook County," said Comissioner Timothy Schneider, reffering to a Massachusetts man convicted of murder who committed assault and rape after disappearing while on a weekend furlough in the mid-1980s.

"This is our Willie Horton moment and do we really want someone who's convicted of these offenses to be let out...to possibly commit another offense when they could be deported?"